“Quicklook” Assessment of Greater Adelaide's Assets & Challenges ...

where appropriate and suggestions for improvement are noted from the Civil
Infrastructure Group and the IC2 team.
STRENGTHS
1. Growth: There has been a discernible about turn in urban sprawl. People want
to live in the café city including suburbs close to the city (last 5 or 6 years) so
land has become valuable in the city and adjacent environs. To that extent,
sprawl has slowed to a ½ or 1/3 of historic levels.
2. Capacity planning: There are examples of wise infrastructure investment that is
‘fit-for-purpose’, e.g., the Southern freeway is an example of a reversible road to
cater for morning and evening peak traffic flows when traffic flows one direction
during predictable time periods.
3. Quality of living: The quality of living is exceptional in Adelaide. Adelaide has
reasonably priced houses (…but land is increasing in value in the city) and good
cultural amenities.
4. Adelaide has more parking lots (car parks) per capita than any other Australian
city. The numbers of car parks in Adelaide have proliferated to the extent that
Adelaide is now a city with one of the highest ratios of spaces per workers in the
world (443 spaces per 1,000 workers) up to double that of other Australian
Capital Cities.
City Melbourne Sydney Adelaide Brisbane
CBD
144,203 193,000 73,868 77,490
Employment
CBD Spaces 40,963 38,000 32,782 29,988
Spc/1000
works
284 196 443 387
This compares to an average of 211 parking spaces per 1000 city workers in 12
of Europe’s largest cities, 198 in Toronto and an average 380 in the 10 largest
American Cities.
Adelaide’s car dependence is high compared to other cities:
City
Mode Split
Melbourne Sydney Adelaide Brisbane
(work)
car/other
37/63 20/80 67/23 51/49 (all trips)
5. A world-class O’Bahn system (O’Bahn is a guided bus way that uses little side
wheels to guide the bus while traveling on the O’Bahn allowing it to travel at high
speed safely viz. 100 -120 Kph).
6. Congestion Related: Generally roads are able to get traffic across town in an
efficient and easy manner – Adelaide is often referred to as the ‘twenty minute
city’. As the city is sprawled, traffic does suffer. Public transport is actually
starting to grow because people are moving back, so congestion in certain
locations actually encourages people to use the bus. They have clearways for
freight to help with congestion. Population growth has dropped as well.
7. Water and land: It is an across-the-border issue for South Australia
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